Easements and Fences

The typical BOD answer about easements is you cannot run a fence over them. Well that answer is usually wrong. It is up to the utility holding the easement to decide, not the BOD.

Continue on the path you are on showing the BOD that the utility holding the easement has no problem with you erecting a fence. Now all you have to do is meet the associations guideline on type, style, height, etc of fences which they can control.

Nobody, it is not mowable. Lots of bushes and plants and a few small baby pines. Both us neighbors just mow to the edge. He owns the most than we do, our property line is the edge on our side. Its more of a ditch in my opinion with steep sides. The county called it a stormwater swale. It collets rainswater that flows from the street, always has water in it so nobody really maintains it.

Thank u john, a little glimmer of hope the 2nd proposal isnt denied. We reduced the ditch side by 2 ft in a kind effort. 2ft doesnt sound like much but our lot is so small already and now we feel like we were naive and sorta duped thinking we had more space than we actually do.

LOL ... If easements could not be fenced most HOA's across the country would not have any fences at all. If the easement is on your property ... YOU still own that property. You can put anything you darn well please on that property as long as it does not violate anything contained in the "Easement Agreement" (Your local government should be able to provide a copy). Generally these will state no permanent buildings, trees, etc. However, they will also usually note fences and bushes are allowed, but if access is ever needed the owner is responsible for removing any "temporary type" obstructions they installed and replace at their own cost. I would do two things: 1) Make sure you are carefully tracking any correspondence with proof of receipt of your correspondence. I would send a letter "Cerrtified Return Receipt" with the info from the local government, pointing out other homes with fences located on swale easements, and request for them to give you the exact State Statute and governing document sections backing up their denial AND why you are being treated different that other similar owners. 2) I would attend the next local government council meeting and during the time when citizens can voice a concern ... I would pound them on the issue that your "Property Rights" are being violated. We did this once and they had us talk for few minutes with their attorney (was told as Citizens it was a concern for the attorney to review ... after all we pay property taxes). Sometimes a telephone call or email from the local government attorney can quickly settle a property issue. Not many governments do this, but mine did ... LOL also could have been due to the not nice publicity they were getting on our other issues and did not want it to further explode. 3) If the other two do not pan out then consult with an attorney. Unfortunately, sometimes it is difficult to fix stupid and it may take an attorney to make them see the light.

It sounds like you're dealing with the typical, "uninformed, but sometimes well-intentioned" HOA board. Or they may be completely clueless without the good intentions.

Can you get a letter from the county reinforcing your assertion that YOU own the easement?
If not, I'd get such a letter from an attorney.

Heck, the plat map alone should show who owns the property.

Yes our plot map shows that our neighbor owns most of the ditch and we just have a little sliver of it. The corner of their house is literally the beginning of the 20 ft easement. The corner of our house has 3ft until the easement begins. Like I said nobody maintains it other than us and by maintain I mean cut weeds and shrubs back. It is a huge ditch that holds water and has small trees\plants throughout. We will be contacting the county again after the holiday but I'm sure when she pulled it up the first time she would've told us you don't "own" it...? When we closed, the builder specifically said you own the rights to your land and referenced the Beverly hillbillies oil thing.

Now that I think about it here is the first denial and all they wrote was the easement cannot be enclosed...not fences can not enter. 2 separate denial reasoning s in my opinion!

Thank you for your submittal. The standard fencing requirements is that drainage and utility easements not be enclosed. Could you resubmit under those terms?

There are white vinyl, stockade, black iron, white iron, and shadowbox style fences in the neighborhood. We are copying 2 neighbors in regards to a wood fence all around except on the back, black iron so we can see the mini forest behind our property. The fence is a basic horizontal privacy, no gap with a vertical post every 5 ft. It doesn't seem like the type of fence is an issue with them because all she said was resubmit with a different placement. I assume they would've said no horizontal in the denial. There's so many different kinds of fences in the neighborhood that to deny that style would be singling us out.

Sorry ... actually was $10 per large copy. I pulled a Final Plat plus copies of two other large plats and it cost me $30. However, keep in mind different Counties charge different prices. Some still allow viewing, copying, and saving documents without charging fees via their websites. If you go to your County Records website and put in the name of your association it should list all documents. Then check to see if you can view without any fee. If you can just save the files to a pen drive then take to a copy place and they might be able to print for less than you would pay at the County.